Monday, July 17, 2017

Hillary Clinton Collusion with Russia ?

Hillary Clinton claimed Russian hacking and election meddling caused her unexpected loss. Donald Trump was supposedly a puppet of Putin. A Trump dossier prepared by a London opposition research firm, Orbis, was paid for by unidentified Democrat donors.The dossier claimed Trump’s sexual and business escapades in Russia had made him a hostage of potential Kremlin blackmail.The Clinton campaign was connected with an unregistered foreign agent of Russia headquartered in DC (Fusion GPS), and the Christopher Steele Orbis dossier. Did the Kremlin prepared the dossier as part of a disinformation campaign?If the dossier was ordered and paid for by Hillary Clinton associates, there could have been collusion between Clinton operatives and Russian intelligence. Two op-eds have appeared in the Wall Street Journal on this subject (Holman Jenkins and David Satter). Possible Russian-intelligence origins of the Steele dossier have been raised only in conservative publications, such as the National Review.Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to the Justice Department on March 31, 2017 demanding for his Judiciary Committee all relevant documents on Fusion GPS, the company that managed the Steele dossier against then-candidate Donald Trump. Grassley writes: “The issue is of particular concern to the Committee given that when Fusion GPS reportedly was acting as an unregistered agent of Russian interests, it appears to have been simultaneously overseeing the creation of the unsubstantiated dossier of allegations of a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russians.”Former FBI director, James Comey, refused to answer questions about Fusion and the Steele dossier in his May 3 testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee. Comey responded to Lindsey Graham’s questions about Fusion GPS’s involvement “in preparing a dossier against Donald Trump that would be interfering in our election by the Russians?” with “I don’t want to say.” The role of Fusion GPS and one of its key associates, a former Soviet intelligence officer, must raise the question if the dossier was a plant by Russian intelligence to harm Donald Trump?The ‘Trump dossier, full of unverified sexual and political allegations, was published in January 2017 by BuzzFeed, despite having hallmarks of Russian spy agency ‘creativity.’ The dossier was prepared by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer.

Much of the credibility of the Orbis dossier hinges on Steele’s reputation as a former M15 intelligence agent. After the publication of the Trump dossier, Mr. Steele went into hiding, supposedly in fear for his life. On March 15, however, Michael Morell, the former acting CIA director, told NBC that Mr. Steele had paid Russian intelligence sources who provided the information and he never met with them directly. If Steele disappeared for fear of his life, the only secret he might have had would be knowledge that Russian intelligence prepared the dossier.

According to a Vanity Fair article, Fusion GPS was first funded by an anti-Trump Republican donor, but, after Trump’s nomination, Fusion and Steele were paid by Democratic donors whose identity remains secret. The Steele dossier consists of raw intelligence from informants identified by capital letters, who claim (improbably) to have access to the highest levels of the Kremlin. The dossier was not, as the press reports, written by Steele. In Stalin's day, some of the most valued KGB (NKVD) agents were called "novelists," for their ability to conjure up fictional documents -- the Steele dossier could be written by Russian intelligence "novelists" to defame Trump and add chaos to the American political system.Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s assignment – to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election – requires him to consider “matters” that Democrats would prefer be left alone.Mueller has been given a broad charge and no deadline -- a formula for trouble. On the Clinton / Democrat side, there are a number of unanswered questions related to Russian electoral intervention. (1) Whether “wiped clean” Clinton e-mails are in Russian hands (as asserted by the Steele dossier), (2) Whether the tarmac meeting of Bill Clinton and the Attorney General Loretta Lynch quashed the investigation of Hillary’s e-mails, (3) Whether the Clinton Foundation and Russian uranium interests engaged in quid pro quo and “pay to play” operations, and (4) Whether the Clinton campaign funded the Orbis Trump smear campaign, which may have involved Russian intelligence?The Fusion-Steele matter is explosive because it suggests Russia’s most damaging intervention in the 2016 campaign may have been its creation of the Steele Dossier, paid for by the Clinton campaign! If so, the Clinton campaign was the prime sponsor of Russia’s intervention in the 2016 election.